“I’ve never seen anything like this before. In all my years in this line of work, I’ve never seen animals treated like this,” Sheriff Rick Singleton said. “It’s shocking that a human being could do this.”

Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said there had been previous reports of cattle roaming at large “off and on for a few months.” He added Coffman had more than 300 head of cattle and that investigators initially found 17 deceased cows on the nearly 800-acre farm.

Investigators returned Saturday and found more carcasses, bringing the number to at least 30.

“They found some others that were in pretty poor shape,” Singleton said.

Veterinarians were called in to care for the remaining cattle. Local farmers also donated hay to help feed the malnourished cattle.

When asked if livestock neglect was becoming more widespread in his county, Singleton said his department had worked a few cases over the past year.

“I think sometimes people don’t have the means (to take care of animals), and they neglect them,” he said.

The sheriff added his department is working with the Lauderdale County Commission to address animal control, and he’s assigned a deputy to investigate criminal negligence cases.

“People need to take care of their animals, but they need to know there are other options,” Singleton said. “There are organizations out there who will step in and take them.”

The sheriff`s office says this is the third time Coffman has been arrested for abusing cattle. “He has a previous arrest, I arrested him a little over three years ago for the same thing,” said Deputy McCrary. “And he’s been arrested in Limestone County as well.”

And they believe it will be the last time.

“These charges are going to be tremendous to what he had in the past,” explained Deputy McCrary. “Because there are multiple counts of it. We are going to try our best to make sure he never owns cattle again. When we spoke with Coffman’s daughter, she said he was evil. And I believe her.”